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John La Barbera Big Band: Caravan
by Jack Bowers
Summoning Juan Tizol's travel-worn “Caravan" to raise the curtain on a big-band album poses a challenge for any arranger, one that John La Barbera easily brushes aside on the third recording as leader of his own ensemble. And while “Caravan" dazzles in La Barbera's capable hands, it is merely the opening salvo in a session that ...
The Mark Masters Ensemble: Everything You Did: The Music of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
by Jack Bowers
Another tribute album from leader / arranger Mark Masters whose splendid ensemble has previously paid homage to trumpeter Clifford Brown, saxophonist Lee Konitz, trombonist Jimmy Knepper and the Gershwin brothers (Porgy & Bess Redefined). This time around it's the music of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, better known by their collective name, Steely Dan. The album, ...
MONK'estra at SFJAZZ Center
by Harry S. Pariser
MONK'estraSFJAZZ CenterSan Francisco, CAAugust 22, 2013The music of the legendary Thelonious Monk (October 10, 1917-February 17, 1982) has rarely been heard in a big band setting. The second most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington, Monk's music is nothing if not popular. While Ellington composed over a thousand songs, Monk penned only ...
Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra: Artistry
by Jack Bowers
On Artistry, the Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra pays homage to one of Richmond's former employers, the legendary Stan Kenton, not by rehashing music performed by the Kenton Orchestra--no matter how forward-leaning that may have been--but rather by renovating a few themes associated with Kenton (and quite a few others that weren't) in the manner in ...
Swingin' on a Riff . . . Hangin' by a Thread?
by Jack Bowers
Betty and I returned to Albuquerque on Memorial Day after attending Swingin' on a Riff, the latest in a series of marvelous semi-annual events presented by Ken Poston and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute for more than twenty years at venues in and around L.A. This one was held May 23-26 at the Los Angeles Marriott ...
Juan Andrés Ospina: BBB (Barcelona Bogota Boston)
by Lewis J Whittington
The jazz diary of pianist/composer Juan Andrés Ospina's BBB is an elegant, untethered tour of primary musical colors, with inviting light, angles and shadows. “Todavía No" states the theme with percussionist Austin McMahon's airy drums swinging, with tango punctuations. Saxophonists Ben Roseth and actually Matan Chapnizka dominate with flights of jazz fancy, though it is Ospina's ...
